Cult: "You're Next"Review

If there were a score that equated to “WTF?” that would be the appropriate one for the premiere episode of The CW’s Cult, which airs Tuesday night and can now be viewed on Hulu. I've watched it twice now, and I’m still not entirely certain what happened.

Here’s the basic premise: There is a fictitious show within the show called “Cult” which also airs on the CW. Stay with me, because the rabbit hole is about to get deeper. “Cult” (the show within the show) centers on the contentious relationship between cult leader Billy Grimm (Robert Knepper) and LAPD detective/former cult member Kelly Collins (Alona Tal). Grimm, or one of his acolytes, has kidnapped Collins' nephew and sister – seemingly in retribution for her leaving the fold. It is unclear if Grimm is in fact behind the crime, or if his following has grown beyond his control, though.

Meanwhile, in the “real world” the “Cult” fanbase have become consumed with decoding the messages contained in each episode. The fervor has spawned the Fan-dom-ain Cafe where television devotees get together to do decordery business. Now the idea of an “internet café” designed specifically for fans to meet and obsess is pretty silly, but also fairly on par with The CW’s tendency to divorce itself from logic and realism.

In any event, investigative journalist Jeff Sefton’s (Matthew Davis) brother Nate, a hard core “Cult” fan, is just about to uncover some next level truthiness about the show…when he disappears. It’s a whirlwind of vague references to “clues” and reaching an amorphous “them” before he jets into the ethers and his café buddy blows her brains out. It's a bit of a challenge to connect the dots. Frankly, one wonders why they’re still hanging out in these “Cult” physical and virtual chat rooms when it doesn’t look like much fun.

Jeff teams with Skye (Jessica Lucas), a young research assistant for "Cult," who has also started to grow suspicious of dark and mysterious events surrounding the show and its elusive executive producer/creator Stephen Rea who refuses to make a public appearance - even to his staff. Let’s leave the fact that it would be impossible to have a show creator that no one’s ever met alone for now – this is just more CW shenanigans - and start with the beginning.

We open on a documentary from 2009 entitled “Cults in America” which has, for some unknown reason, been shot on Super 8 film…Which would actually be pretty inconvenient to process in 2009. Far be it from me to question the “freakishness” of Super 8 footage, though. Billy Grimm is there to explain that his followers are seeking “unconditional love and belonging” as the camera pans to what looks like a group of hippy revelry. We will come to learn that prancing hippy #1 is in fact Detective Collins.

Here’s where we get the first hint that “something isn’t right.” Flash frames. Insidious images and words begin to flash in between the footage of joyful prancing. I’ve tried several times to freeze on them and see what they’re all about - to no avail. I leave that to you. Seriously, someone please do it and let me know what’s there.

The Super 8 footage leads into the fictional show, with no clear correlation. Was that footage playing as a part of the episode of the show within the show, or is it a completely separate thing? Here is the first clue that there are some clarity issues with Cult. It’s expected that a show riddled with mystery will begin to weave them in during the first episode. Lost did that, certainly. The difference is that when done well the viewer is left intrigued rather than befuddled.

As mentioned, there are a few silly elements that one simply has to accept as par for the course with a CW show. This is clearly fantasy, which means that the normal rules of life do not apply. For example the goofy network executive who “kept Joss on the air” would be able to access the executive producer to talk about marketing strategies. The idea that Rae exists in a vacuum is just nonsense.

In general the circumstances in the story are as heightened as you get, and the performances on the show match that tone. The result is that they become a bit soap opera-ish. The performances on the show within the show, meanwhile, play as downright hammy. Putting all that aside, though, Cult simply tackled too much at once in its debut. The result of which was a confusing mess. Better, I think, would have been to focus on this rabid fanbase and the eventual disappearance of Nate, for now.

Instead, in the span of an hour:

Nate disappeared, briefly reappeared on the phone, then disappeared.

A man was found dead in a dumpster.

We were presented with flash frames to try and decipher.

We were introduced to a catch phrase that will likely play a big part in the coming weeks, “Well hey, these things just snap right off.”

Mystery 3D glasses that revealed hidden messages made an appearance (ala They Live).

Our hero voluntarily allowed a Ring-esque disk to access all of his personal info (which makes him seem a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, frankly.)

Creepy cop is secretly a cult member (which was not a surprise).

Extra freak show waitress kidnapped the network executive. (Which just seems like a stupid plan – the network marketing team has more than one member!)

Overkill is putting it mildly. When a show tries to cram that much in at once it gives one the sense that it either isn’t secure about what it has to offer and wants to lure an audience in with as many bells and whistles as possible, or it doesn’t know what it is yet. Either way, Cult needs clarity – and quickly. Finally, it occurs to me that if you are laying the groundwork for a conspiracy this elaborate and far reaching, there better be a damn good reason for it. Right now, I have minimal faith in the ultimate plan for this series.

On the other hand, Cult is so bats**t insane that I almost have to love it for existing. The central idea is weirdly intriguing enough that I’ll be willing to tune into a few more episodes to see if it starts to really take shape and make sense. If it does that, then Cult has a shot at becoming the addictive phenomena that it is so clearly aiming to be. This first attempt to effectively communicate the central conceit was a bit bumpy going, though.

Cult premieres on February 19th at 9/8c on The CW.

Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.

Okay

Cult has the potential to be a creepy guilty-pleasure, but for now is leaning more towards convoluted mess.

18 Feb 2013

Just crazy enough to intrigue.

Overly convoluted series opener.

Soapy characterizations and performances, and not always in a good way.